


Fresh Ashes

by Ninjaman2



Series: Ashes of War (Star Wars) [1]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Biology, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Clone Wars, F/F, F/M, Lesbian Character, Lightsaber Battles, Major Character Injury, Major Original Character(s), Mild Blood, Mild Gore, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Content, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2019-12-30 13:38:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18316313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninjaman2/pseuds/Ninjaman2
Summary: "This war doesn't end till I say so"Endless conflict across the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker banished from the order, and the rise of something dark for the galaxy begins, so just as the old ones settle... fresh ashes arise.





	1. Crumbling Faith

**Author's Note:**

> Should preface this with the fact that Anakin and Padmé are not married in this story or together - IDK why, just felt like it.

Machines were simple, easy to understand for him. He knew which wire went where. How each LED on the circuit should light up and when. Or perhaps when its best to run twelve meters away from a super-heated quad-thermocoil. Rules on the other hand, and ridiculous ones at that, were something Anakin despised. But not in the anarchic style of: “rules are meant to be broken” but that it is right and just to disobey a rule if, and only if, the rule is wrong. He personal philosophy was why he’d lived so long in his line of work. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Knight, not Master, Knight – despite everything he’d done for the Republic and for the order, they still refused him the rank of Master over the fact he’s too young. First, they refused to train him, despite his obvious talent, because he was too old – now he’s too young.

Anakin grumbled as he slid out from under the overheating Y-Wing fighter. Its pilot had suffered severe burns as his armour plate melded with his flesh because of the ill-constructed fighter. That only goes to show the effect of the war even upon those not directly fighting in it. The only saving grace at this point was that the previous battle had been a victory – a near one though. Fifteen thousand battle droids destroyed with ten thousand clones lost all to siege one Separatist Stronghold. He sighed and shook his head, despite every victory over their enemy, the Separatists seemed to bounce right back as though nothing had happened. They were the losing faction, but despite this they were always on equal playing field with the Republic’s grand army. His train of thought however, was cut off by the arrival of Captain Rex, leader of the 501st Legion and Anakin’s personal regiment.

“Sir, the mission report for today's success has been filled out on this here holopad for your inspection, Sir” announced the trooper in blue.

“Thanks Rex, I’ll take this to my quarters… oh and see if you can send up some food as well – starving” Anakin responded, faking a jovial mood.

 

Arriving at his spacious personal quarters aboard his flagship, the Resolute, he found that his room wasn’t empty. Pacing around his bed, deep in thought was Anakin’s master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“Ah Anakin, I’ve been waiting for you, there’s much I need to discuss…” the Jedi Master trailed off, left hand firmly holding his reddish-brown beard.

“Listen Obi-Wan if it’s about the battle– “he began, before being quickly silenced by the master,

“No! No, Anakin, this isn’t about the battle, its something of a more personal nature. Sit down will you… you’re making me nervous” Muttered the elder man

“You? Nervous? Now that’s an interesting sight. Alright master, you’ve peaked my interest. What?” Joked the Knight. Obi-Wan didn’t look amused, the thick frown on his face spoke volumes for the great silver-tongued Jedi.

“Anakin I’m serious. This is of great personal importance to me and I need your advice. If you remember, you were once in a similar situation to this”

Anakin slumped down on the bed and stared at his pseudo-father’s worried face,

“Are you…?”

“Yes, exactly that” Kenobi muttered shyly.

Anakin gaped at the master. Love. It’s a problem faced by many young and pubescent padawan. But as they grew older and wiser, they often grew out of the issue – so long as they didn’t form any meaningful attachments. Anakin too had been in such a position when he was a young teen. A beautiful young senator from his youth had returned into his life and bewitched him with her beauty but it was Obi-Wan that had reminded him of his place and helped him overcome the issue.

“With who…? Another Master? A civilian?” Anakin implored.

“Anakin! I don’t appreciate you snooping into my personal matters like a prepubescent Twi’lek… but if you must know… allow me to explain. Save all questions till the end and let me explain fully.” Obi-Wan locked eyes with his apprentice who eagerly awaited the epic tale of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s crush. “It wasn’t something I’d thought about… ever. But after our last meeting, I cannot seem to get her our of my mind. She kissed me, you see”

“Who?”

“Well… Ventress” he said so matter-of-factly, as he always did

“What? WHAT?! Ventress kissed you? **The** Asajj Ventress, kissed **you**? Really?” Anakin practically shouted in disbelief.

“Why do I keep telling you personal things?” Obi-Wan sighed. “To be honest, she took me by surprise. I’d fought her before and I’ll admit, we used to do some flirting, but then for the first time she got the upper hand and– “

“–took the opportunity to steal a kiss and flee?” interrupted the Knight

“I assure you, Anakin, I was as shocked as you were – likely more so. I thought all the flirting was a game to distract me but then she kisses me and whispers: ‘you’re mine’ or something of the similar sort. And, well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to her, she’s an amazing fighter and I really do enjoy the flirting when we clash. But as a Jedi Master, I’m especially not allowed to have those kinds of feelings, and now, I don’t know how I’ll act if I see her again…” he said disappointedly

“Wait, what do you mean by that? How can **you** not be allowed to love? I’d understand a padawan and being new to the force and preventing them from making stupid mistakes but you’re a master – wise and with a beard – you’d be smart enough to know this is right, right?

“Yes… but as a Jedi, we must resist forming attachments to others Anakin – especially those kinds. Though, if we weren’t at war and she was willing to be with me, I would have to leave the order to do so, which isn’t that easy.” The Jedi master sounded thoroughly disheartened. “Which is why I’ve come to you… how exactly were you able to get over your emotions for Padmé?” Obi-Wan asked, all tenseness and seriousness returning to his voice.

“I don’t think I ever did… I just kept our meetings short and sweet and with the war and leading the 501st, I’ve had little time to ponder my emotions. I’ve found ways to distract myself”

Obi-Wan nodded, thanked Anakin for his time an passed from the room silently, leaving the Jedi Knight alone with his holopad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been a massive star wars nerd for a long time but have never felt the desire to right about star war - guess because my ability to write Sci-Fi isn't very good and so I'd appreciate some guidance and constructive criticism for the story going forward


	2. Imperial Designs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It begins. Anakin grows suspicious of Palpatine, but who will discover who first?

Palpatine finished his address to the Republic Senate over the current state of the war. It was a simple task to get simple individuals onto his side. One false tale of a dying trooper fighting to the bitter last, one of a Jedi proving how disadvantaged the Sith were and just like that they had 100% faith in him again. Pathetic. Though, not as pathetic as the Separatists. He’d given them strict instructions and equipment designed to make it impossible for them to lose, yet Skywalker had beaten them again. Soon he must be brought onto his side or else the Chosen One might become too Jedi for his own good. Though perhaps at this rate, eliminating Skywalker all together would mean he’d no longer have to keep up the kind chancellor persona anymore and reveal himself at the great Sith Lord Darth Sidious, leader of the Separatists. however, just then, his evil brain waves were interrupted by an alert on his wrist communicator. Someone had disabled his security systems.

Bordered by two guards, he hurried to his office, past Skywalk rushing to a meeting he was late for, and into his office – which was empty. In fact, there was almost no signs of anyone ever being in the room, except for the deactivated security systems. Almost. For a force user, there were certain clues he could see which meant something was wrong.

 

Anakin rushed into the meeting hall and took his place next to his master Kenobi, still locked in deep thought since the previous week, and his jovial young padawan, Ahsoka Tano. As Yoda informed the Jedi about the current state of the war in his broken backwards way of communicating. Anakin glanced at his holopad. The information collected without a trace left on Palpatine’s systems.

After Obi-Wan had left his chambers on the Resolute, he’d remembered his train of thought and began to do some digging and hacking into the republic files and found that there were several unknown shipments of credits, blasters and other equipment to Separatist sectors of the galaxy. All signed off by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. So, as soon as the Resolute arrived on Coruscant, Anakin enlisted Rex and several squad members to help him get to the bottom of this. After communication with the Coruscant’s clone guard and with the chancellor’s guards failed, Anakin planned a heist which began as soon as the chancellor entered the senate hall – which automatically blocked all non-Jedi alerts and communications so Palpatine wouldn’t know about the disabled security systems till he left, giving Anakin an hour or two to search for clues. And he found them, alongside a lightsaber with a red blade. Palpatine was a Sith and Anakin had the proof he needed. So, he rushed towards the Jedi briefing which had just started, passing Palpatine in the corridor.

It wouldn’t take him long, if Anakin’s suspicions were correct, to use the force to figure out what had happened, but long enough for Anakin to announce his –

“Arrest that man!” ordered the Chancellor, him and some of his finest guard had marched into the room, weapons drawn and aimed at Anakin.

“Meaning of this, Chancellor, what is?” Demanded Yoda

“An excellent question Master Jedi. I have recently gained evidence that young Skywalker is a separatist spy”

“Bullshit!” Shouted Anakin, hand clasped around his concealed blade.

“I found several documents in my private files today which have been falsified to contain my name, pertaining to shipments being delivered to his separatist allies and I bet if you search his person, you’ll even find a red sabre!” Blasted the disguised Sith

One of the Jedi masters reached forward with the force towards Anakin and pulled the red sabre from its concealment and activated it. The vile red of the Sith blade poisoning the air around it with its heavy hum.

“Traitor!” blamed the Sith to the Jedi.

“Its not true! Its outrages, unfair accusations! I found that bade in your office!” Contradicted the Jedi. But it was too late, the other Jedi had drawn their own sabres and were begging to surround the Skywalker, except for his master and padawan who simply looked shocked.

“If one remembers correctly, Anakin has never been too fond of Jedi laws and restrictions and many past Sith were Jedi outcasts who desired freedom from the traditions of your order” again boomed the Sith

Anakin took off running, discarding his sabre in a distraction technique and he charged through the halls of the Jedi temple. Clone troopers began to open fire, but Anakin simply used to force to block their projectiles. Running, running, and running, force speed down the many winding halls and passageways of the temple. He’d reached the landing strip, his personal fighter rested with R2-D2 inside. As he made his way to the ship, he copied the data and sent it to Rex and his inquisitorial squad and to Obi-Wan, hoping his master would believe this evidence rather than accusations. Jumping into his fighter, he hit the ignition and its engines roared to life and shot him into the sky above Coruscant. It wasn’t long though, until he could hear the dull blaster fire of republic fighters close on his tail. Despite not fighting back, Anakin could tell, that these clones didn’t mean to take prisoners – the death sentence on any republic or separatist favouring planet was the fate awaiting The Chosen One now. He reached the hyperspace attachments that rested outside Coruscant for Jedi fighters, though he wasn’t able to properly attach one, he connected enough that hyperspace travel was available – and as soon as the big green hyperspace button became available, he vanished into deep space.

“If we’re lucky, he tore himself apart at light speed” muttered the chancellor after being alerted to the situation. Ahsoka sobbed on Obi-Wan shoulder after hearing the news.

“You were my brother Anakin, I loved you” he thought as he comforted the young girl and stared off into the distance. What fate would his actions bring the galaxy now. He was supposed to destroy the Sith – and now apparently, he’d joined them. And if the Jedi had been wrong, if Palpatine was a Sith Lord, then who will save the galaxy from his imperial designs.


	3. Darth Vader emerges

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, recently had personal issues which prevented me from writing but now I'm back with this and a new story.

Three years later. The war dredged on. Perhaps because of Skywalker’s supposed influence over the Separatists or perhaps because the lack of his strength in this war made the Republic seem weak. Obi-Wan had completed Ahsoka’s training and saw her into becoming a Jedi Knight and took on a new Padawan as well; Torell, a human.

Torell had short brown hair, blue eyes, a slightly scrawny physique and was surprisingly competent in the force – there was some speculation within the order that he was liberated from the Sith and so he gets his strength from his training there, but Kenobi denies the accusations.

Ahsoka herself had become the general of the 501st after Anakin vanished from the galaxy, she still held out hope that her previous master lived, despite the heavy charges against him. However, two years after his disappearance Rex and several other members of the legion were taken captive following a scouting mission gone wrong and when a rescue op was launch, the Separatist base they were being held in was found destroyed. Commander Bolt, a young clone with a cybernetic right eye was Rex’s replacement. Being the one of the survivors of a previous incident which rocked the Togruta’s fragile life. Kenobi disappeared. In a clash with enemy forced on a floating fortress, Kenobi and his Padawan came up against Ventress and as the base exploded and crumbled around them, he used the last of his energy to force push Bolt and several other clones to safety before being engulfed in the collapsing, burning, falling fortress. Adding insult to injury, the base crashing to a highly flammable underground gas vein which erupted and vaporized most of the surrounding area. Kenobi’s lightsaber was recovered – they thought it was his however it was beyond recognising when they found it – an took that as a sign of his passing. Now she was alone, no masters, no clone friends, just her and Barriss (the two of which had formed a secret romance, though a good 10 clones also knew about it from seeing them in the security footage, but Bolt had forced them into secrecy on her behalf).

However, while the forces of light and dark continued their eternal clash, something new was born….

 

The planet Thule, neighbouring the ancient Sith planet of Korriban in the Outer Rim, a separatist mining operation goes unknown within the republic. Battle droids using advance mining tools had be excavating large areas of land for weeks.

22B877, current group commander surveyed the droid continued work.

“General?” one droid dared to ask in its whiny robotic voice. “Why are we still digging? We haven’t found anything in months”

“Our orders, 31B227, are to dig until we find the temple. Lord Sidious has ordered the excavation of the planet to find the ancient Sith temple. So quit whining or you’ll find yourself in a scrap pile!” retorted the commanding droid, in the same whiny robotic voice. Several more droids had become distracted with the concept of something interesting happening (the possibility of a fight or revolt) that they became distracted from work. This distraction gave the hooded figure the perfect opportunity to sneak into the dig site.

Steadying his breathing, he slowly crept down to the faintly lit cave opening. Droids don’t need much light to see or work. Reaching out physically and with the force, he stretched his emotions out to feel his goal within the darkness. The darkness. It was all around him. It clung to every fibre of his being. Every memory and insecure thought in his head. This planet was strong with the dark side of the force. Very strong. But he pushed on, forcing the light side to prevail within him and locate his goal. His goal? Something within the temple called to him, rather, someone was pushing him towards the temple – a voice had crept its way into his mind and began to guide him down this path, promising that all will be revealed once he enters the temple. Moving further and further down the cave, it became darker and darker and darker. The temperature began to rise too. He removed his cloak to reduce his temperature, but as he moved, it continued to get warmer. He loosened his robes, and yet the heat continued to grow. Shirtless he wandered in darkness, sweat pouring off of his body – in its place, the darkness grew stronger. He stumbled and fell. Reaching out with his metal robotic hand, he continued to crawl on, unwilling to give up. Until, a door. Simple and plain in its appearance. Wooden, with a tungsten door knob. Out of place in the depths of a cave. Using the knob as a crutch, he struggled to his feet.

Stepping through the door, he found himself in a void of darkness, there was no walls, ceiling, floor, end. He plummeted, spinning and flailing down into the depths of the bottomless expanse of darkness. Pause. Paused. The world seemed paused. He had suddenly stopped moving. He simply hovered there, alone, in the void. Now he felt cold. Alone. Cold. Afraid. No, not afraid – no fear, his training told him fear was bad, it leads to hate which leads to the dark side of the Force. He would not succumb, he could not succumb. Forcing all of his strength he channelled all of his might into the force and sent out a colossal shockwave which blasted into the silent void. All his strength and willpower focused into pushing away the darkness. Then, he found himself upright. Gravity centred.

While still encased in darkness, he was no longer alone. Hundreds, thousands of people now walked, talked, lived in the void. He was naked. He realized that immediately. So were the others. One great mixing bowl of races and sexes brought together into this void. He recognised several of the people here. Jedi and Sith. Perhaps he was dead, this is the afterlife of the force. Was he gone? They faced him. A thousand forms representing both light and dark advanced towards him, their bodies joining with his – once again he was alone but no with this throbbing warmth within him. And standing before him was a suit. Ancient Sith armour.

He glanced around. He’d placed the suit over his bare body and found that he was in a simple Sith temple. Probably a private temple, part of a larger structure. Perhaps for training the young. He found a lightsaber. It had a T-shaped hilt with ignition port at both ends of the T and like a normal sabre at the top of the cylindrical hilt. Ignition – the blade was unstable and green. It felt heavy in his hands – unnatural weight. Was he ready to wield the blade again? Could he be trusted with it, with this destiny? Anakin Skywalker couldn’t. Though Anakin was a wanted war criminal, his new identity – his cover name practically demanded its officiality. Could he become this false identity? Did he have a choice?

“Separatist battle droids!” he was outside again, his voice booming and distorted from the mask. “Leave this place!”

“Who’s this nut?” asked the droid general rhetorically.

“I don’t know?” responded another.

The droid general slammed his fist into the head structure of the other droid,

“I was being rhetorical you fool!”

“I shall say one more time!” began the armoured man, “Leave!”

“On who’s authority?” responded the general

“I am Vader, and I command you to leave this planet!” he drew the green sabre.

“Droids, on my command…” ordered the droid general

“Roger Roger” responded several troopers.

“Fire!” finished the commander

“Roger Roger” responded the same troopers

“Die then!” roared Vader

Fifty laser blasts from a variety of battle droid weapon shot towards him at once. But not bolt reached its target, they all hovered about 50cm away from Vader, who showed no sign of using the force. He exuded power. He exuded fear – raw fear. The bolt were shot back at their firers with amazing speed and force. Vader then surged forward, lightsaber in hand and slashed apart the separatist presence.

Anakin Skywalker did not have the strength to do it, Vader concluded. He, on the other hand, would – the training and weapon of a Jedi, the armour and presence of a Sith, he was no longer Anakin Skywalker; he was Darth Vader.


End file.
